Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 1, 1993 TAG: 9310010022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And Gallimore says Simpkins may not be the last woman he marries.
"I believe in it and I preach it," Gallimore said of a man's right to have more than one wife, "and if it did hit me, I'd do it again."
Janice Gallimore, 43, said in the divorce papers that her husband's marriage "in the eyes of God" to Simpkins "constituted cruelty" and "had such an adverse effect upon her" that she had to leave him.
She left her husband this spring, but the couple quickly got back together. This time, however, she believes "reconciliation is highly improbable," the court papers said. She declined to be interviewed.
The Gallimores own a house in Pulaski County. Elwood Gallimore moved out two weeks ago and has been living with friends in Collinsville, near the Evangelistic Tabernacle in Bassett Forks where he is the minister.
Gallimore said he would let his first wife keep the new Ford Thunderbird he bought this summer. He said he would provide the financial support she requested in the divorce papers.
"I'm the type of fellow who believes you're married till death do you part - not divorce," Gallimore said. "I will support her."
Since Gallimore told his congregation last December he had informally married Simpkins, Janice Gallimore's family has maintained that the situation was forced upon Janice. They could tell by looking at her that the stress of the arrangement was playing havoc on her nerves, they said.
Elwood Gallimore admitted Thursday he knew his lifestyle was wearing on his first wife, but said he couldn't do anything about it.
"She tells me she still believes what I preach is the truth - she just can't live with it," he said. "But I can't just drop Sabrina, because I'm just as duty-bound to her as I am to Janice."
Simpkins, a Floyd County High School senior who was 16 when Gallimore "married" her, never moved in with the Gallimores, but she and the 44-year-old preacher did spend several nights together.
Gallimore was charged in February with seduction and taking indecent liberties with a minor. Both charges were dismissed in June when a Floyd County judge ruled the 19th century seduction law obsolete and found no evidence to support the other charge.
Gallimore said he and Simpkins have put their relationship on hold until she turns 18 in July. Under a new Virginia law, Gallimore would be guilty of a misdemeanor offense of taking indecent liberties with a minor if he had sex with Simpkins before she turns 18.
Despite all the controversy he's weathered since his lifestyle became public in January, the minister said the news that Janice Gallimore wanted a divorce got to him.
"We was talking on the phone yesterday and she said, `You'll be getting the papers' - that's how I found out about it," he said. "Something like this does bother you. [Twenty-six years] you just don't drop."
by CNB